Diver gets harassed by reef shark while Lion fish hunting

[SeaHorse81]

I was with a group in the Bahamas a couple years ago where our main activity for many of the dives was lionfish hunting. We ran into trouble as well, but not nearly as bad as shown in this video. We had to abandon our stringer of lionfish (one shark made it clear he was going to take it) and we had to back out of the area, which was bad enough.

My understanding from one Caribbean boat captain I talked to about this is that this has become a problem in numerous places where lionfish hunting has been practiced for a few years, and that hunting has since been banned in some places because the sharks were just becoming too aggressive around divers.

Classic unintended consequence. If we keep hunting lionfish, we're going to turn lots of previously amiable reef sharks into aggressive bullies. Not good for anybody.

 

[Interceptor121]

That shark was fairly small. I wonder however about the equipment of this so called lionfish hunter. He goes out there with some plastic jar that can't be sealed properly, dives in a rash vest and shorts despite lion fish spines are poisonous and wears no gloves useful if for some reason he needs to handle the lionfish. Like every kind of outdoor activity it can be dangerous if you are an amateur. The concern about spearfishing in areas where you normally don't is legitimate as sharks are after easy preys and are scavengers so a dead lionfish is always good enough. When people used to go spearfishing in South Africa in big sharks infested waters there have been very few reported incidents that's because they were geared up properly and made no bubble noise. The shark in this clip is not more dangerous than a couple of Titan triggerfish that have attacked my during years but I do hope this puts non trained people off hunting lionfish as a hobby as they may get bitten by a shark and last thing needed is a shark hunt considering the animal is pretty much disappearing

 

[drbill]

I've read of situations where lionfish hunters actually offer the speared fish to sharks, groupers, etc. I wondered when a situation like this was going to happen. Many spearos know that one needs to take precautions when carrying speared fish (such as trailing the stringer a distance from your body). Could this become a growing trend?